Different people at work and                                                                                Different moods too ...                                                                                           Employees are different from                                                                               Their employees anytime ...                                                                                  Customers are different in                                                                                     Their attitudes ...                                                                                                     Salesmen or vendors are pushing                                                                        For their stuffs to be sold ...                                                                                   Delivery drivers are those go                                                                            In-between anytime ...                                                                                       All factors work together                                                                                  Including the climate itself ...                                                                           Shoplifters and thieves are                                                                               That part of life ...                                                                                               There are many things that                                                                               At work .

"Don't tell me the poets ... "

I write poetry that is both incorporated
And incorporeal ... and un and un and un
It is done

On the pad : and off

Hop - Lily

On the tailgate
In the truck
Boots on the ground
In the muck

Put on your Carhartt's
It's time to get *****
Even better

Grab your Old Man's work clothes
Finish the job
That He didn't want to start

Don't tell me the poets are ******* crying

We're living
And we're dying

Careful though
The warlords have come into the jungle and slaughtered before

But we live again
A little more angry
A little less wise

--> **** **** up, juveniles

Shoplifters of the world ...
untie

He crosses the street
But never takes the corner of his eye
Off of you
As if you would actually let
Your foot off the brake

This Civil War
Our nation is now fighting
Is different
Than the last

The sign in the convenience store window
Warns of shoplifters being shot
And survivors.. They'll be shot once more

The store clerk follows you
Discreetly, so he thinks
Almost begging for you
To use  your five finger discount

This Civil War
Our nation is now fighting
Is different
Than the last

Money-hungry moguls
Only widening the gap
The vagabond with ripped pants
The newlyweds who work so much
To have so little

The capitalist kings
Poisoning the peasants
Anything for an extra buck
Anything

As the rich get richer....

This Civil War
Our nation is now fighting
Is different
Than the last

A real-life game
Of cops and robbers
Has gone way too far

Guilty
Not guilty
He said
She said

Armies forming
Head to head
Parting
Like the Red Sea

This Civil War
Our nation is now fighting
Is different
Than the last

Danny could be counted on
To run some kind of scam.
And usually the victim was
His older brother Sam.
But Jimmy liked pranks
And pulled quite a few.
Jumping out at passersby
Was a favorite thing to do.

One day I took them with
Mom’s express consent
To our favorite notions store,
Woolworth five and ten.
We looked and touched;
Added to our Christmas list.
And as we paid for candy
I was clueless what was amiss.

As we were walking home
Out on the street again
Suddenly, goggle eyed
I saw the show begin.
Out of each kid’s pocket
A trinket, a toy appeared.
This is precisely what
I had originally feared.

The little shoplifters stole!
The blame would befall me.
Their only thought was
They got all this for free.
I told them to take it back
But they just angrily said no.
I had other recourse, it seemed
Then to let our Mama know.

Mama went a bit frantic
Her voice went high and loud.
And of course, my brothers
Were no longer quite so proud.
Jimmy smacked Sammy
And Sammy started crying.
Mama smacked them all.
And Danny started lying.

Then Mama walked them
Every one of the three
Back to the five and dime
And they confessed tearfully.
Mama paid for the things
And told them no TV
And sent them to bed soon
After supper was history.

And all of them blamed me
But, Mama said I did well.
It wasn’t to please Mama.
I didn’t want them to go to hell.
And I was a bit P.O.ed;
They took advantage of me.
So, they could just grumble.
It made no difference to me.

That’s the way things went
With three regular brothers.
There were fights and fits.
They often miffed our mother.
Jimmy smacked Sammy
And Sammy started crying.
Mama smacked them all
And Danny started lying.

On T.V. I see the poppies grow
Between the stalks I see the ghosts
Acquaintances, lovers, enemies, friends
Strange that an innocent plant
Brought about​ their ends

Many times it nearly killed me too
Slumped, choking, pin-eyed, turning blue
But I managed to swim against the stream
Pulled myself painfully out of the dream​

Too many I knew didn't survive
Their families crying at the grave side
The earth fell to the coffin from out of their hands​
Because of a plant that grows in Afghanistan

Struggling farmers grow it to keep their families alive
Smugglers carry it across the waters wide
Every mile that it travels, the price it inflates
It ends up on an English council estate

Shoplifters and burglars walk the grey, rainy streets
When darkness comes the working girls pound their beat
Warily watching​ through windows​
The dealers do what they can
Selling powder from a plant that grows in Afghanistan

What choice of paint
Which layer of wallpaper
What chance haircut
will you dig down to to find
the former you -
the era that feels most
like arriving home
after night-turn
to a crazy-paved front,
a pebble-dashed alley
and tea and toast
and sisters' shouts and laughter
and Rikki's cold nose
against the house wake-up
and the cold bed waiting
in the sunlight,
offering the prospect of quiet
and space to process
the night's violence
its ****** silence and chaos.

6 nights to go before
a quick change
to afternoon shoplifters,
junction prangs
and more palatable stories
to take home with white lies
and shielded emotions